Where do you get the extra half-hour a day that the Centers for Disease Control recommend for adults to exercise? What if you were active in your everyday life, walking to the store to get a gallon of milk, biking to the park with your kids, or walking to work two days a week?
More than 88% of over a thousand Spartanburg County residents surveyed last year as a part of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan process responded that they would walk to work if conditions were safer for doing so. More than 75% said they supported improving conditions for walking and biking, and 88% supported using public funds to do so.
However, most indicated that they did not want new taxes to cover those costs. A recent poll conducted by the Rockefeller Foundation found that while transportation projects are very important, most Americans do not want to pay more taxes to fund them. So where do the funds necessary to improve conditions come from? Many communities are not adding to transportation budgets, but rather reallocating those funds to pay for improvements that allow for and encourage different means of travel. After all, adding bike lanes and sidewalks improves the transportation system, often reducing automobile congestion, and improving air quality and community health at the same time.
Part of the problem is that the physical roads do not treat bicyclists equally. We have to put ourselves in the automobile travel lanes, and take our chances that drivers are paying as close attention to us as we are to them. In those circumstances, it’s hard to expect bicyclists to adhere to the same rules when the physical conditions are so unbalanced.
And the more vulnerable members of our community who cannot drive? The elderly, the young, and the poor are often constrained by economics or age, and have no other choice than to travel by foot or bicycle, not to mention those with physical handicaps who cannot drive. But when the transportation system overwhelming prioritizes automobiles, these folks are left to fend for themselves.
More complete streets, those that accommodate all forms of transportation, would improve the entire system, and thus should be part and parcel of existing transportation funding. Spartanburg County’s Capital Improvement Plan for 2011-2015 calls for $26.5 million for roads and intersection improvements, $5.6 million for bridges, and $300,000—less than .1% of the spending for roads and intersections—for “sidewalks and alternative transportation,” including exactly $0 for this fiscal year. No money is allocated for public transit, and only $50,000 for traffic calming measures.
Compare these figures to the Nashville Metropolitan Planning Organization’s re-allocation of transportation funding. By policy, they dedicate a 15% minimum investment of available funds to active transportation, and another 10% to mass transit. All projects are evaluated on a number of criteria, including health of residents and impact on air quality. By incorporating health outcomes in transportation planning, they have moved beyond “autos only.”
Compare these figures to the Nashville Metropolitan Planning Organization’s re-allocation of transportation funding. By policy, they dedicate a 15% minimum investment of available funds to active transportation, and another 10% to mass transit. All projects are evaluated on a number of criteria, including health of residents and impact on air quality. By incorporating health outcomes in transportation planning, they have moved beyond “autos only.”
The recent renovations on Broad Street in the City of Spartanburg, for a good local example, reallocate space so that cyclists and automobiles have similar safe routes. Using the same amount of space as before, the City reduced the number of travel lanes and included bike lanes. They also upgraded the crosswalks to make them more visible to pedestrians and drivers alike. According to City engineer Tim Carter, costs for the project were not significantly higher than they would have been with conventional striping. But now cyclists and pedestrians have a fair share of the road.
The City of Spartanburg has taken significant strides to improve conditions for all road users. And according to Spartanburg County Engineer Ron Kirby, the County has spent about 5% of its budget for sidewalks. But this effort to equalize funding for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists requires a policy change, one that signals greater concern for the health of all residents, not just those traveling in multi-ton vehicles. Dedicating funding for active and alternative transportation will show a greater commitment to community health and to a more equitable transportation system.
